Fire hits five-storey block in s'Arenal, Palma

Today's essentials (4 key points)

• Emergency crews rushed to a five-storey residential block on calle Trasimé in s'Arenal, Palma, on Saturday after a blaze broke out on the first floor.
• Open-Meteo forecasts an overcast day across the Balearics, with temperatures between 25 and 31 degrees and wind gusting up to 17 km/h.
• A three-vehicle collision involving a Jeep, a taxi and a private car snarled traffic on the Ibiza to Santa Eulària road on Saturday morning, Diario de Ibiza reports.
• Tadej Pogačar won the opening stage of the Vuelta a España, according to Diario de Mallorca and Diario de Ibiza.

Today's essentials

Fire hits five-storey block in s'Arenal, Palma. A fire broke out on the first floor of a five-storey building on calle Trasimé in s'Arenal, Palma, on Saturday afternoon, sending up a large column of smoke and drawing numerous emergency crews, according to Diario de Mallorca and Última Hora.

What you need to know

• Towns affected : s'Arenal, within the municipality of Palma de Mallorca; the fire was reported on calle Trasimé (likely calle Trasimeno).
• Roads closed or diverted : Not confirmed at this time.
• Official instructions : Not confirmed at this time.
• Air quality : A large column of smoke was reported over the area; no official air-quality guidance has been issued at this time.
• Official numbers & channels : 112, the general emergency number in Spain and the Balearic Islands.
• Last updated : Saturday afternoon, 22 August 2026, per Diario de Mallorca.

Situation ongoing: this article will be updated.

Weather today

Overcast day, 25 to 31 degrees. Open-Meteo forecasts a cloudy day across the Balearics, with temperatures between 25 and 31 degrees and wind gusting up to 17 km/h.

Transport & traffic

• Three-vehicle crash on the Ibiza to Santa Eulària road. A three-vehicle collision involving a Jeep, a taxi and a private car hit the main road linking Ibiza with Santa Eulària on Saturday morning, and the moment of impact was caught on video, according to Diario de Ibiza and Periódico de Ibiza y Formentera. This is one of the busiest routes on the island, the everyday link between Ibiza town and the Santa Eulària area, so any incident on it tends to back up traffic quickly. If you are driving that stretch, expect possible slowdowns and give yourself extra time; where a road connects two of the island's main hubs, a single crash can knock out the fastest option for getting across.

What's changing for you

• Six months to design Ciutadella's new health centre. Menorca's regional health department will sign a 1.3 million euro contract with SV60 Arquitectos to design the future Ciutadella health centre in Santa Rita, with the works themselves set to go out to tender in mid-2027, according to Es Diari. For residents in and around Ciutadella, this is the first firm step toward a facility the regional government has previously described as "almost a hospital." Nothing changes on the ground yet: the design phase runs about six months, and building work is not expected to be put out to tender until midway through 2027, so keep this on your radar rather than your calendar for now.
• Girl injured by falling cornice in Alcalfar discharged. Es Diari also reports that an 11-year-old girl hurt in the early hours of Friday, when masonry from a collapsing cornice fell onto her bedroom in Alcalfar, Menorca, has been discharged from hospital. The debris came from a semi-abandoned house next door, a reminder that derelict buildings can pose a real risk to neighbours. If you live beside a property that looks unsafe or is falling into disrepair, you can flag it to your local town hall, which has the power to order inspections or shore-up works on buildings that threaten public safety.

Local news to know

• Pogačar takes the Vuelta's opening stage. Tadej Pogačar won the first stage of the Vuelta a España, Diario de Mallorca and Diario de Ibiza report.
• Ibiza Wellness Weekend eyes 1,000 participants in October. The Ibiza Wellness Weekend returns for its seventh edition on 16, 17 and 18 October, with organisers hoping to top 1,000 participants, according to Periódico de Ibiza y Formentera.
• Two new transitional deacons ordained in Ibiza. Periódico de Ibiza y Formentera reports that the Bishop of Ibiza, Vicent Ribas Prats, will ordain seminarians Jorge Durà Milán and Sergio Pamblanco Sánchez as new transitional deacons of the diocese in a ceremony on Saturday 29 August.
• Manuel 'Naranjo' Escribano dies at 87. Manuel Escribano Navacerrada, known as "Naranjo," a figure of SD Ibiza's football side in the 1960s, died on Friday morning at the Can Misses hospital at the age of 87, according to Diario de Ibiza.

Tonight and tomorrow, the Balearic Islands

• Cloudy skies send visitors into central Palma. Saturday's unsettled weather pushed many tourists to swap the beach for the centre of Palma, with crowds especially noticeable around the Paseo Marítimo and the Cathedral, according to Última Hora. If the clouds hang around, the old town and the Cathedral quarter are a solid rainy-day fallback, though expect them to be busier than usual today.

See the full agenda, tonight and tomorrow